Sure, Android has a call roster built into the phone and Google Voice which also tracks your calls. However, you can be excused for wanting something a little different and easier to use to track when you are making certain calls and to verify the calls you have made. Some of us need a method of storing records of calls made for business purposes or just because we are anal about what our carriers charge us for. Whatever the reason, you can install CallTrack to take care of this for you. CallTrack actually stores details about the calls you have made and received to Google Calender. This is handy as it allows you to back up your calendar data (hence your calls) when you do your back ups so you never lose the data. It is also customisable. Although the level of customisation is not mind blowing – it is enough for what the app needs to do.
You can set the software to log missed calls, incoming calls and outgoing calls. You can also dictate what it actually saves to Google Calendar and enable or disable the app at will. Not bad for a free app and adds a little extra functionality to your Android device that would not have necessarily been as easy to utilise without it. Sometimes we need records of this nature for tax offset purposes. Because we are unable to claim costs that have not been incurred as a direct result of undertaking business – it is a really handy app in this regard. Couple CallTrack with Tracker for extra functionality – you can opt to only track calls made to specific number so that you are only tracking calls that have been made when doing business. This makes it a lot easier to work out what call costs you can actually claim when tax time comes around.
If you are using it for this method and make a great deal of calls it is a good idea to try and organise all of the data you have collected weekly. Doing a weekly collation of the CallTrack and Tracker tracked calls will make your job a little easier come tax time. You should be able to set up a Google Doc to record the data into a spreadsheet (again, Tracker can help with this) in order to completely automate the process. You will need to pull the relevant data out of the Google Calendar and save it into a Google Doc – you might need to manually input the cost of the call when the bill hits you as well. Alternatively you can get an app that actually records the cost of the call when it is done and find a way to store this data with the call. The sky is the limit in regards to Android apps and you are really only limited by the amount of time you spend in customising your work flow around the apps you have at your disposal. When it comes to tax (in this regard) – the less you pay the better.
